Saved By Yourself
by SomethingOutOfNothing
Summary: The newly regenerated Doctor has crashed on Earth after the Time War, and all he wants to do is get away and forget. Can a complete stranger change his mind? Written for The TARDIS' 'Claim A Character'.


**A/N- Okay this is for The TARDIS' 'Claim A Character', it's a great forum, check it out! This is set just after the doctor regenerated from eighth to ninth. And, yes, I know this probably doesn't make much sense. This is my first try at the Ninth Doctor, so he could be out of character.**

**Disclaimer- If they were mine, I would have tied Chris Eccleston down and never let him leave.**

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**Saved By Yourself**

"Okay, that hurt a little more than I remember," The Doctor mumbled to himself, hearing a Northern accent in his new voice. His head was fuzzy and he couldn't remember what had happened, so he started looking around to try and figure out where (and when) he had crash-landed.

The Doctor figured out he was most likely crashed on Earth, in what looked to be the twentieth century. So with that puzzle solved he frowned and searched his mind to try and figure out what had happened, and why he was currently crashed. On Earth, of all places.

Then it all came flooding back; the Daleks, the Time lords, Gallifrey, his family, the end of the Last Great Time War. And he had caused it. _I killed them! I killed them all! They're gone because of me! _The Doctor yelled inside his head as he felt the tears streaming down his face.

_I'll get the parts to fix the TARDIS and then I'll be gone,_ The Doctor thought. "That's it. Fix the TARDIS and run, just keep running away. You're worse than those stupid apes, they run away," a voice said from behind him, it sounded like his new voice, but The Doctor knew it didn't come from his mouth.

The Doctor turned around slowly; to see a tall man in a leather jacket, and a dark jumper, with cropped hair looking at him through blue eyes, eyes that looked like they had seen more than they wanted to. And he was doing the unthinkable; he was leaning against The DoctorsTARDIS! "You can't keep running," the man continued, "The universe can't afford for you to go crazy, no matter how much you want to."

"And who are you?" The Doctor asked in a cold voice, all he really wanted to do was get away from everything, forget it all. _Maybe I could use the Chameleon Arch? _The Doctor thought. But at that moment, despite everything, his curiosity was getting the better of him.

"Can you really be that _thick_?" The man asked. "Never mind, it's safer if you don't know who I am," he said after thinking about it for a second. "Just remember one thing: it _will _get better."

The man saw a flash in The Doctors eyes, and a second later he was in front of him yelling. "You haven't got a clue what I saw! What I did! So don't you tell me it'll get better!" The Doctor could feel the tears coming back, so he turned his back not wanting this man to see, even if he was a complete stranger.

The man just stood there as calmly as he had before and said, "You need to trust me on this."

"Trust you! You wont even tell me who you are!" The Doctor yelled again, not really feeling like doing anything except yelling for the rest of his lives.

"Oh, look who's talking!" The man said then, "lets just say, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you," The Doctor backed off a bit and asked quietly, sounding defeated, "how can it get better?"

"Well, it can't get much worse!" the man said with a grin, and then continued, "you'll end up clinging to an iceberg after saving a whole family, you'll meet a fantastic girl, you'll save her life, she'll save yours, in more ways than one. You'll take her away to see the stars and then get slapped by her mother." The man paused and continued, "okay, that last bit probably wasn't the best example, but you've still got a fantastic life to have so don't give up on it, alright?"

"Okay," The Doctor said, actually believing what he said.

"Good! Now have a fantastic life!" the man said starting to walk away. "Oh, and don't _try_ to fix the chameleon circuit, you'd just make it worse," The man said over his shoulder. The last thing The Doctor heard before he entered the TARDIS to try and fix it was the man muttering to himself, "that was like talking to Rickey, I'm sure was never that thick!"

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**Review worthy? Constructive criticism welcome!**


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